Mail Smells Chilcot Paydirt

When the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre returns to the editor’s chair at the Daily Mail, it is said that the occasion has to be marked by a campaign, whether it is bashing Labour politicians over their past links with fringe groups, kicking rip-off merchants, smearing those who dare to offend the paper’s righteous moralising, or anything where the assembled hackery can play both sides of the field.

What's f***ing wrong with pre-judging the Chilcot Inquiry, c***?!? Er, with the greatest of respect, Mr Jay

And today marks one of those great campaigns, as the paper, which was all in favour of the Iraq war, is now demanding answers from the Chilcot Inquiry, the suspicion being that the Dacre doggies believe there is a cover-up brewing, and beneath this lurks hidden paydirt. “MPs, generals and victims’ families condemn Iraq War inquiry chief’s 6-year failure to publish findings … THE MAN WITH NO CONSCIENCE” it thunders.

This headline - showing Dacre has as little appreciation of irony as ever - is justified thus: “Julian Lewis, Tory chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, stepped into the row by saying Sir John had failed to give ‘straight answers’ about the reasons for the delays … He added that ‘anyone with a conscience’ would have ensured the report was published quickly for the sake of bereaved relatives”.

Chilcot gets the full smear treatment, as witness “Sir John, a 76-year-old retired civil servant, was yesterday faced mounting anger for allowing the inquiry, which has cost £10million, to drag on … Sir John Chilcot is working just eight hours a week at his Westminster office … the probe is running years behind schedule”. Sadly for the Mail, there is not a schedule for the Inquiry.

The Mail also now believes that the Iraq adventure was illegal, something it managed to miss at the time. Daily Mail Comment, the authentic voice of the Vagina Monologue, talks of “key telephone conversations between Tony Blair and George W Bush in the run-up to their illegal war … The lessons of how Britain was bounced by Tony Blair into joining this illegal invasion”. The evidence? Aw stuff that, the Mail doesn’t need evidence.

What the Mail’s ranting and frothing does tell us is two things: first, they have decided on this occasion that all those ordinary people about whom Dacre and his minions couldn’t usually give a stuff have now become useful to them, which brings us to the second, that the Chilcot Inquiry may have leaked, not to any significant extent, but sufficiently for the thought to enter at Northcliffe House that the contents will be worth the wait.

There can only be one reason for that: there will be something in there which may prove damning to someone that Dacre despises - either that, or it will be easily possible for the Mail’s more creatively minded hacks to spin it that way. Who might be on the receiving end is not known, but it could be the blessed Tone, his former spinner Big Al, or the likes of Jack Straw, whom Dacre despises almost as much as Blair and Campbell.

Paul Dacre has decided he must see Chilcot’s report. Do not expect the Mail to let up on this until he gets it. That is all.